Improvement in car-couplings



1. T. LOWREY.

Car Coupling. I

Patented Jan. 19, 1864.

Witnesses:

lnventon I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN TILLEY LOWREY, OF LAFAYETTE, INDIANA.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAR-COUPLINGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 41,308, dated January 19, 1864.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J OHN TILLEY LOWREY, of Lafayette, Tippecanoe county, State of Indiana,have invented a new and useful Improvement on the Machine for Coupling Railroad- Gars; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of two railroad-bumpers approaching to couple, showing the improvement in combination; and Fig. 2 represents the bumpers divided perpendicularly through their length, displaying the interior link-chamber of each, the couplingpin being shown in its perpendicularposition, and also as it is thrown back by the entering link.

The object of my invention is to provide railroad-cars with aself-coupling arrangement so contrived as to cause cars to couple without the immediate assistance or bodily intervention of any human being. The method at present in vogue requiring a person to enter between approaching cars in order to direct the coupling-link and drop a coupling pin involves personal danger, and is frequently at-.

tended with loss of life. My invention proposes to obviate this risk.

To enable others to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

It consists of an iron pin, A, hanging by a shoulder in the pivot-rod,-B, which latter passes horizontally through the upper part of the bumper. As the couplinglink C enters of the bumper.

the bumper the pin is pushed back until. it clears the link and falls into its perpendicular within the link. The mouth of the bumper is beveled, so as to receive the approaching link and conduct it into its chamber. In order to keep the outer end of the link from being unduly depressed and thereby missing the opposite bumper,the link is kept near a horizontal by adapting the height of the link-chamber to the thickness of the link and by a proper adjustment of the upper bevel of the mouth The bumper is cut in such a manner as to allow due swingto the pin, and the pin itself may be assisted in recovering its perpendicular by a rubber or spiral spring, 1), within the bumper.

In the accompanying drawings the same letters refer to the same parts of the invention.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of the pin A and pivotrod B in a railroad-car bumper, as above described, by means whereof the coupling-link of cars may be caught and cars coupled without personal intervention.

2. The combination of said pin A and pivotrod B, and rubber or spiral spring D in arai1- roadcar bumper, and for the purpose of producing a self-coupling of cars, as above described.

J N O. T. LOWREY.

Witnesses:

T. JEFF. LEVERING, GEo. B. WILLIAN. 

